Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ovrproof]

I know this sounds like a stupid question - but what kind of fruits and vegatables are available in Busan??? I am a vegetarian and wanted to know what to expect. Is the pricing reasonable?

I was hoping since the area is close to Thailand and other tropical regions that I would be able to find similar produce to what I eat back in the Caribbean - like mangos, oranges, jackfruit,ect. In terms of vegetables do they have the typical western standard sutff???

thanks for your help

[sojourner1]

Oranges, bananas, mandarins from Jeju, applies, kiwi, lemons, pineapple, and cherry tomatoes are to be had everywhere except really small towns. Things like carrots, one kind of basic potato, glutenous rice, yellow onions, and bell peppers are available. I haven't seen any fluffy white rice nor various types of potatoes. I seen purple onions from the states, but they were soft and rotted. Food in small stores tends to be more dated. You won't find heaps of tropical fruits and veggies like you do in American supermarkets, but small quantities of a very limited selection in each store or market are to be had. Selections of everything tend to be mostly consistent and predictable all over the country as it seems so the same everywhere, except Seoul. Seoul has the most selection of everything as it's an exception to the rest of the country with it being the center hub of the universe.

No limes, mangoes, nor jack fruit. Not as much as you'd expect makes it to Korea as imports are very limited. You can get frozen mangoes and other things not commonly sold in stores off of Gmarket, an Ecommerce site. Gmarket also sells larger quantities of everything at better prices. Fruits and veggies are generally over priced every where in stores, but a single guy teaching here can still eat fruit, especially someone who is not buying the over priced meat. You'll be quite surprised at the limited variety of imports if you've traveled to many other countries. Korea is protectionist of its' domestic economy so it tries to depend on it's own capabilities as much as it can and miserably falls flat on its' face in doing so as Korea is very natural resource poor and too cold 6 months a year to grow anything.

[air76]

Korea is a 5-hour flight from Thailand and not even remotely similar by any stretch of the word....distance wise it's like saying Moscow is close to Barcelona, will they have good Paella?

At any rate....I am not being mean, just pointing out that you cannot expect any similarities between Thailand and Korea whatsoever.

For the most part all of your basic fruits/vegetables are available here, but pricing is very very, read VERY seasonal. If you buy what's in season then fruit and vegetables are cheap, but if you just buy what you want with no regard to the price then you can pay 4 to 5 times the price for certain items out of season. This is especially true with fruit...grapes and strawberries are prohibitively expensive out of season, as are melons of any sort. Tropical fruits such as papaya, mango, etc are going to be too expensive year-round. The good thing is that if you do eat what's in season you can buy huge quantities of fruit at low prices from pick-up trucks parked around town.

Another way to save money on vegetables is to go to Home-Plus around 10 o'clock and check out the discount rack. Often there is quite a bit of stuff there that has nothing wrong with it, especially if you plan on consuming within the next day or two.

Just a warning...being a vegetarian in Korea is extremely difficult as it is definitely a meat-eating culture. Vegetarian in Korea means 'no-beef'...so you can often order a vegetarian dish and it will contain ham or seafood...as ham/seafood isn't considered meat per se. So if you're anal about your vegetarianism you have to be equally anal when ordering and learn how to ask if there is pork or seafood in every dish you order....most vegetarians eat 95% of their meals at home. At any rate....I am sure that if you do a search for vegetarians on here that there are plenty of threads talking about it. Personally I wake up every morning yearning to plunk a slab of meat into my drooling mouth, so I can't offer much advice other than the fact that I know it's difficult as I have vegetarian friends and have had vegetarians come to visit me.

[ovrproof]

thanks for the two answers...

as far as being close, I guess I am spolied having lived in Toronto. Mexico and the Caribbean is roughly 5 hours from Canada and we get lots of fruits and vegetables there. I know Korea isn't tropical by any means, but I thought the selection of imports would have been wider. But thanks for the info! I know it'll be hard, every item of Korean food I've read on the internet other than kimchi has meat!!! Will be interesting...

[air76]

The difference in the US and Canada is that the reason we have tropical fruits at reasonable prices has nothing to do with the proximity to Mexico but instead because of buying power and low tariffs on imported fruit.

For example the cost of shipping cheap Chilean grapes in the winter to Korea would be roughly the same as bringing them to North America (when you look at the massive quantities that are shipped at a given time) but the fact is that Korea doesn't want to import fruit. They have very strong protectionist policies in regards to their farming industry. They will import foods that they don't have and need, but anything that would damage the Korean farming industry is heavily taxed.

For this same reason rice is comparatively expensive in Korea.